364
AN GAOḊAL
cruinniġṫe, gathered, pron. cornniheh.
Some verbs end their progressive
participles in aḋ; as, deun, do, deunaḋ,
doing; and their perfect participles in
taḋ, and te; as, deuntaḋ, done; buail¬
te, beaten, pronounced, respectively,
dheeuneh, dheeuntheh, and booiltheh.
Hence, then, we have this table —
iuġaḋ, an uġaḋ sound oo.
aḋ and a " eh.
iġṫe and uiġṫe " iheh.
uiġ and iġ " ih.
In the beginning of a word aḋ and
aġ are pronounced like the pronoun I,
aḋarc, a horn, pronounced, eye-urk;
dn sounds nn, as, muidne, we, us, pro-
nounced, muinneh ; dl sounds like ll;
as, codlaḋ, sleep, pron. colleh.
Omit the sounds of the aspirates al¬
together in the middle of words, mar¬
king their places as the division of a
syllable, and you have a very close
outline of Irish pronunciation. Take
saoġal, the world, for instance, omitt¬
ing the ġ in the minds eye, you have
sao-al, and, substituting the sound of
the diphthong ao (ay), you have say-
al, the proper pronunciation.
Now, it is as easy to learn the fore¬
going as Pitman's phonetic system; in
fact it is phonetics. Here is Pitman's
system. —
á represents the first, ó the second,
and ú the third place of Pitman's long
open sounds; é the first and second
and í the third place of the long slen¬
der sounds. The unaccented Irish
vowels represent Pitman's short vow¬
el sounds
Pitman's Table — Long,
Irish sound.
1 a as in alms,
*
2 a ,, ape,
é.
3 e " eat,
í.
4 au “ all,
á.
5 o " ope,
ó.
6 oo " ooze,
ú.
Short. —
1 a “ at,
a,
2 e " bet,
e.
3 i “ it
i.
4 o “ on,
o.
5 " up,
u.
* The a as in alms is not found in
Irish except before double ll, as, mall,
slow.
The eclipsing letter needs no men¬
tion hardly as its sound is substituted
for that of the initial letter of the ec¬
lipsed word; as, sagart, a priest, pro¬
nounced, soggarth; taḃair an leaḃar
do 'n t-sagart, (pron. thoggarth) give
the priest the book. Conceive the e¬
clipsed letter dropped entirely and
you have mastered eclipses.
Muirnín na Gruige Báine
'S i mBaile na h-innse ṡiar
Atá mo ġráḋ le bliaḋain,
Is áille í ná grian an ḟóġṁair,
'S go ḃfásann mil 'na diaiġ
Air lorg a cos 'san tsliaḃ
Dá ḟuaire an uair 'réir na Saṁna.
Dá ḃfáġainn féin mo ṁian
Go ngaḃainn í ann mo líon
A's go gcuirfinn-se 'n brón so ḋíom ó'n
lá sin
A's air ċóṁairle a rugaḋ riaṁ
Ní ṗósaiḋ mé aċt mo ṁian
Is í Muirnín na gruaige báine.
Tá mo ċeuċta le sgur
A's mo ḃranra le cur
Agus an méad úd eile le deunaṁ,
Mé do ḃeiṫ amuiġ
Air ḟearṫainn a's air ṡioc
Air súil go dtiúḃrá spéis dam.
Is coma leat é
A ċaraid ó mo ċléiḃ,
Ní ort atá an ṗian ċráiḋte,
Agus dúiṫċe Flaiṫḋeas Dé
Nár ḟeicfiḋ tú go h-eug
Mur dtugaiḋ do ċroiḋ-stiġ gráḋ ḋam
Dá ḃfáġainn-se mo roġain
De ṁnáiḃ deasa 'n doṁain,
Agus fáġaim orra roġain ṡásta,
Agus réir mar deir na leaḃair
Do ṫug sí buaiḋ ó 'n doṁan
Is í Muirnín na gruaige báine.
— Ó'n gCraoiḃín Aoiḃinn — beagnaċ.
Féaċ Vol. VI. l. 776.
